


i'll be there when you need me

by teaish (orphan_account)



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Can Divergence, F/M, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-01-23
Packaged: 2018-05-15 15:51:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5791510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/teaish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Sansa Stark's date stands her up, she finds an unexpected savior in the form of Theon Greyjoy</p>
            </blockquote>





	i'll be there when you need me

 

**SANSA STARK HATES THEM**.

Their pitying stares, their dates, everything. Even the waiters are giving her those eyes. They keep asking her if she wants something off their menu.

“I’m waiting for someone,” she replies every single time. “He’ll come.”

Her voice is confident at first, but questions after questions it falters.

Where _is_ Joffrey? He’d told her to come at King’s Landing – the _hands-down_ best restaurant in all of Westeros – at seven PM. She checks her phone one more time.

  _8:38,_ it says.

Sansa represses a sigh for the millionth time. It’s an hour and a half _past_ seven.

A nagging thought passes by Sansa’s head. He could have stood her up.

_No_. He wouldn’t. Joffrey wouldn’t. He is kind and gallant and he loves her.

_But why isn’t he here_? a voice tells her.

“Miss?” It is the same waiter. He is looking at her with _those_ eyes again – wide, pitying blue eyes. Sansa hates him too. “Are you _sure_ you don’t want a drink?”

He is kind enough, Sansa thinks, but at this moment she hates him. She hates everything just as much as she hates being stood up.

“No,” she tells him slowly. “I’m waiting for someone else. He’ll come, I’m sure.”

Those wide, pitying blue eyes appraises her again, and Sansa finds herself flattening her blue dress down and throwing her red hair over her left shoulder as he leaves.

_8:45._ And to think Sansa dressed to impress today! Her dress brings out the blue of her eyes and her hair is in its absolute best. And who’s she’s gonna impress now?

She brings out her phone to pass time, but she is uncomfortably aware of each ticking minute.

_8:50. 8:55. 8:56. 8:57. 8:58. 8:59._

_“I’m sorry I’m late_! _”_

 Sansa’s head whips up, hoping to see a blond boy rush in King’s Landing’s doors. Instead it is a black-haired guy. Defeated, Sansa returns to her phone.

What she doesn’t expect, however, is for the guy to sit right across her. He leans in.

“I know you’re waiting for someone, but you’ve been here for almost two hours,” he says speedily. “Hope you don’t mind me coming in.”

Sansa almost smiles as she watches those grey eyes pop in laughter.

Keyword: _almost._

“Who are you?” She hopes she isn’t coming too ungrateful; she _is._ “I hope I wasn’t too standoffish,” she adds.

“You’re not. I would ask to if some random person just plops down in front of me and pretends to be my date.” He smiles. “Theon Greyjoy.”

 “Sansa Stark,” she tells him.  “I’m Sansa Stark.”

 “Nice to meet you, Theon Greyjoy.”

“You too, Sansa.” He leans back. “Hope you don’t mind me asking, but who are you waiting for?”

Sansa’s face darkens.

“You don’t really have to answer,” Theon says hastily.

Sansa shakes her head. “No, no, it’s okay,” she reassures. “It’s Joffrey Baratheon.”

Theon makes an _oh_ face. Then he raises his hand to signal a waiter.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s a date, and as far as I know, people eat at dates,” Theon says.

“But--” Sansa starts but a waiter comes in – the very same waiter with those blue eyes – and she stops.

“Theon?” the waiter says. Theon’s eyes widen.

“Hey, Gendry!” Theon stands up and gives him a hug Sansa recognizes as a “boys” hug. Sansa sees it all the time when Robb’s and Jon’s friends are over.

Boys think that girls are too touchy, but it reality they are like the same.

“What are you doing here?” Gendry asks. Theon tips his head at Sansa’s direction.

“So _you’re_ the one who kept her waiting.” Gendry makes a _tut-tut_ sound. “Her sister will hear about this.”

_Wait, what?_

“You know traffic around here is deadly, you know?” Theon says. Then he faces her. “What do you want?”

Sansa’s head is still swimming. “You choose,” she finds herself saying.

“Okay.” Theon faces Gendry. “Then we’ll choose the special.”

“Enjoy your stay at King’s Landing, Theon.” Gendry nods his head at her. “Sansa.”

_What, what, what?_

Gendry walks away. “What just happened?” Sansa asks. “You know him? And he knows my sister?”

“Um, yeah.”  Theon nods. “Gendry is Arya’s boyfriend.”

“What? Arya has a _boyfriend?_ And I didn’t know?”

“Yeah.” Now Theon looks confused. “I know Gendry because I know Arya.”

“How did you know Arya?” she demands.

“Your brother’s Robb Stark, isn’t he?” he says.

“You also know my _brother?_ ” As she says this, a memory tugs at her. Something about Robb blabbing about him and his friend at dinner. “Wait, you’re Theon, as in _Theon_ , Robb’s friend in high school?”  

 “Yes. That’s why I came here because I saw you.” Theon smiles and there is something… _different_ about it. It isn’t Joff’s smirk that drives Sansa crazy, but it is a smile that warms her to the core.

“It really is a small world.”

“Yeah.” Theon nods. “I didn’t expect you to be here in King’s Landing. Winterfell’s a long way.”

“Yep,” she answers. “I’ll be here for a while. I can say the same about you, though. Why are you here?”

Theon merely shrugs.

“How are you?”  Sansa blurts. “I mean, how’s everything? It’s been a while since Robb’s in high school, you know.”

“Same old,” he says. “Back at our hometown. I miss Winterfell, though. Pyke’s a pain in the arse.”

“You can always come,” Sansa offers. “Winterfell is open.”

“Thank you,” he says sincerely. “I’ll come by.”

“You better. Robb misses you, you know.”           

“I’ll—I’ll try,” Theon says, flustered.

 Just then, Gendry comes in and places their order down.

“Gendry.” Sansa smiles at him. “I know about you and Arya.”

Gendry blushes.

“I have my eye on you, okay?” she says. “And I’ll definitely come by here again,” she adds sincerely. “With Arya,” she adds.

Gendry promptly blushes, making Sansa laugh. The he fumbles to get out.

“That’s cruel, Sansa,” Theon japes.

“That’s what sisters do.”

“I wish that’s what my siblings do,” Theon says and Sansa is sure that the edge in it isn’t just about something petty.

“Why?”

Theon waves his hand dismissively. “It’s nothing.”

Sansa is having none of that. “You wouldn’t talk like that if it’s ‘nothing’.” She makes quotation marks as she says the last word. “You don’t have to say it on our first date, though,” she assures him and Theon releases the tension in his shoulder he thinks Sansa haven’t seen.

Sansa doesn’t know what possesses her to do it, but she reaches out and pats Theon’s hand, smiling warmly. “Thank you.”

Theon smiles at her then, and it suits him so well that her lips curl up before she realizes it. Her stomach clenches at that and she stuffs her mouth with the pizza as soon as she notices it.

She clears her throat. “Anyway. What are you doing here, at King’s Landing?”

Theon shrugs. “Nothing much. I usually just eat here, ever since I’ve stumbled here.”

Sansa smiles.

“Why are you smiling?”

“Nothing, it’s just…I’m having fun, you know?” she says. “More than I have with Joff, really. And you’re really fun to talk too. Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For everything.”

Theon fidgets for a moment, then taps his fingers over the table. Sansa’s heart seems to be fighting against her ribcage. “What I’m going to ask is probably too early, so you can tell me to screw off.”

Sansa grins, ignoring her wildly beating heart. “And that is?”

“Would…would you like to have dinner, for real this time?”

“I would love to.”


End file.
